Grassroots Railroad Sports?

NickD said:

I know everyone is trying to make their charters stand out from the rest, but this one seems to have gone a bit far for the sake of authenticity.

On this note, I have recently seen a series of memes making fun of how formulaic photo charters have gotten, specifically from a certain photographer who will go unmentioned. You could practically play charter bingo these days. And, yes, the Trackmobile is real. There was a staged photoshoot recently where they were taking photos of the crew aboard, who were swinging kerosene lanterns and wearing old-school uniforms while operating a Trackmobile shoving decrepit out-of-service locomotives around. And despite the effort of trying to create "authentic experiences", it's always blatantly contrived. Crews operating relatively modern diesels while wearing bandannas around their necks (which were only worn in the steam era to keep cinders from going down your shirt) and wearing hickory stripe shirts with denim overalls (plenty of guys in the diesel era just wore jeans and a polo shirt), while swinging kerosene lanterns. There's guys in WWII service uniforms but they're in their mid-40s and badly out of shape, you know, the lifeblood of our armed forces in WWII. There's a tractor just there in the field with no implements and it's spotless, when really most tractors got banged up, scraped up, hacked up in pretty short order on a farm. I mean, if you''re going to stage an "authentic scene", stage it authentically. That was the nice thing about the A&A charter I did, there were no actors or cars or tractors positioned around, or crews staging hooping up orders or any of that. It was just locomotives being positioned in good spots along the lines and doing runbys.

In reply to 02Pilot :

It's pretty impressive that those things ran in regular service for 76 years. They entered service in 1917 and were finally officially retired in 1995, after 76 years, 7 months and 12 days. Those electrified operations on CN in Montreal are an odd bit that tends to get overlooked (although not as obscure as B&M's electrification through Hoosac Tunnel). Always interesting to see preserved machines get repatriated back to territory more befitting of them too, and usually to the benefit of the equipment (like how NKP #757 looks much better and more looked-after after it's relocation to Bellevue versus when it was at Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania)

CN electric box cabs #6710 and #6712 pull VIA FP9A #6541 and train 135 through the Mont Royal station. Also note the RDC hooked on the tail end, likely for some sort of connecting service.

The "air-conditioning" is clearly on aboard the #6716, as the engineer throws a wave, with two of the Z-4-a electrics leading a westbound commuter run at  Junction D L'Est in Montreal

NickD said:

Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp., the Ravenna, KY-based group restoring C&O Kanawha 2-8-4 #2716, has announced that progress will be making a major leap forward. They will be receiving the fully-overhauled Worthington feedwater heater assembly off of ATSF 4-8-4 #2912 in Pueblo, NM. The #2912 had an operational restoration began on it back in the early 2000s by it's owners, the Pueblo Railway Museum, but they discovered that the #2912 need some pretty extensive firebox and boiler work that pushed the expected costs up into the mega-dollars range, and decided that it was out of their reach, economically. They then pivoted towards a cosmetic restoration, but had had a number of appliances, including the Worthington feedwater heater, overhauled before then. Kentucky Steam Heritage Corp. worked out a deal to trade their feedwater heater off the #2716, which is cosmetically complete but needs a total rebuild, for the rebuilt but never used feedwater heater off of the #2912.

KSHC has been doing a great job of saving money where they can on this restoration. A year ago, they struck a similar deal with Pueblo Railway Museum to do a similar swap of the #2912's rebuilt air pumps with those on the #2716. And they also worked out a deal with Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum for a set of tubes, which the HVRM had purchased for the aborted operational restoration of their own C&O Kanawha, #2789. These moves have not only saved large amounts of money, they also have saved considerable amounts of time. I remember hearing that lead time on a set of tubes is 6 months or more. 

The trade of C&O #2716's old worn-out, unrebuilt feedwater for ATSF #2912's unrebuilt feedwater heater has gained another angle. Pacific Railroad Preservation Association is in the process of getting Spokane, Portland & Seattle #700 running again, after it was taken out of service in 2015 for it's 1472, and they discovered discovered severe cracks in the #700’s feedwater heater hot water pump, rendering a repair economically impractical. Since the #2912 is going to be a display piece anyways, the decision was made to swap #700's cracked hot water pump for the unrebuilt one from #2716. So now, #2912 has #700's pump, #700 has #2716's pump and #2716 has #2912's pump.

SP&S #700 has always been kind of an "also-ran" engine. I'm not sure if it has to do with the fact that it's stablemates with the much more popular SP #4449, or that the SP&S is a relatively small railroad with a correspondingly small fan base, or that it's only run 15 years, but it's not an engine you see and hear much about. One of just three 4-8-4s owned by the SP&S, the #700 is mechanically identical to a Northern Pacific A-3 4-8-4, which were descendants of the original Northern Pacific A 4-8-4s. The wheel arrangement derives its name from the fact that Northern Pacific was the first owner of 4-8-4s in fact. Since SP&S was jointly owned by Great Northern and Northern Pacific, their steam locomotive orders were typically a couple extra engines tacked onto the tail order of one of their owners' orders, and so when the SP&S needed more modern and powerful express locomotives in 1938, three more A-3 class locomotives were added to Northern Pacific's order of eight.

SP&S #700 leading it's its first big outing in October of 1990. The engine ran for the Washington Steamfest event from Portland to Pasco, then on to Yakima, Ellensburg, and Cle Elum along the former Northern Pacific Railway.

I'm admittedly a little baffled by the push to bring SP&S #700 back to operation. The same group owns SP #4449, which is the same weight and size as SP&S #700. They also have roughly similar driver sizes, 80" for #4449 and 77" for #700. As it sits, the #4449 barely ever gets out and runs. The past few years it's only run on the Oregon Eastern for holiday trains, and then this year the OERR said they didn't want the #4449 running on their tracks anymore because the big Northern is chewing up their roadbed. So that leaves the #700 all dressed up with no place to go. Although to be fair, when they undertook the restoration in 2015, they didn't know that Amtrak was going to end charters in 2018 and PTC was going to become a requirement a few years after that

I took a day off yesterday to burn some vacation time and I went out to Utica in hopes of getting some photos of NYS&W UT-1 and Mohawk, Adirondack & Northern. Well, it turned into just one of those days.

Got there early at the NYS&W end of Utica Yard and I did not see the #3040 outside idling. I figured maybe it was in the engine house, so I went and picked a spot along Schuyler Ave to wait for them. I sat there for awhile, hoping to not draw the attention of either the police or the locals (it's a rough neighborhood). Sat there for a while, and there was no sign of the train coming. Drove down Schuyler Ave back towards the yard and saw an NYSW crew working on the grade crossing. Got back to the yard, and there was no sign of motive power idling in the yard, so I figured NYS&W wasn't running.

Went over to Union Station, and oddly Adirondack Railroad had M420W #3573 and RS-18u #1835 idling in the yard but I knew they weren't running. I went up in the pedestrian walkway so I could see the east end of Utica Yard, where MA&N has their engine house. They had one of the ex-EL/BCR C425s, #2456, idling out in front of the shop, so I walked down along the platform and could see they had the hood doors opening. I thought maybe they were giving it a once-over before heading for Rome, and then walked further down to get a photo of M420TR #27 behind the shop (someone was asking it's status on Facebook). When I walked back west, the #2456 was gone. I thought maybe it'd run out into the yard to get it's train together, but going back up to the pedestrian walkway showed it nowhere in the yard. Presumably they didn't need to make a trip to Rome, and were just checking it over after some repairs or an overhaul and then put it back in the shop.

I stood there a while and watched a few CSX and Amtrak trains come and go, but didn't take a ton of photos. I did see something weird, which was three westbound CSX trains that had two 4400hp GEs of various flavors towing 15-20 stack cars and absolutely hauling ass. No clue why they were running such short trains and with an excess of power and all in pretty close succession. 

So, yeah, went to catch two Mon-Fri operations, and somehow neither of them were running. Which I think has happened here before. Still, I'd be more mad if this had been LA&L and I'd driven two hours one way for nothing to happen.

Fast forward to 0:50 to see some pretty cool track laying!

A gentleman by the name of Dave Deyo has started posting photos on the one D&H Facebook group that I'm in, and he's been putting up some real gold. Chief among those are some rare photos of the RF-16s, #1205 and #1216, hauling a continuous welded rail train over the D&H Penn Division. This was believed to be the only time that the Sharks handled a train over the Penn Division. Due to their age, poor mechanical condition, lack of dynamic braking, and inability to M.U. with anything else on the roster, the Sharks didn't haul trains over the road very often. They mostly handled the transfer drags between the Lehigh Valley's Sayre Yard and the D&H's Bevier Street Yard in Binghamton, the "Slate Picker" local run out of Whitehall over the Washington Branch to Vermont, and helper service over Belden Hill. So, catching them running out over the Penn Division was a real rarity. They were dragging a load of continuous welded rail headed up to north of Oneonta. They're dropping down past the old Erie depot at Thompson headed towards Starrucca/Lanesboro

Passing under the Erie's Starrucca Viaduct at Lanesboro, PA. The Sharks were relatively short-lived, being acquired in '73 and sold off in '78, and the Penn Division vanished a couple years later when the D&H acquired the old DL&W main from Conrail in 1980.

The whole D&H welded rail train is stretched out on the Penn Division track near School House Curve, about midway between Lanesboro and the New York State line near Windsor

Headed to Nineveh Junction with a welded rail train on the D&H Penn Division. Photo was taken from the Route 17 highway bridge in town east of Windsor NY

This would be one of the transfer drags to interchange freight cars between the D&H and the Lehigh Valley. It was usually the older castoff power that was assigned to this service (I've seen photos of LV Alco PA-1s handling this trips) and the pair of RF-16s met the bill.

The same transfer move. As much as the Sharks were loved by railfans, they were pretty wretched junk by the time the D&H got them and, from what I've read, no one on the D&H really liked them. They were worn out, they weren't particularly reliable, and they were oddballs on the roster.

One of those LV-D&H interchange moves, this time handled by a single grubby Lehigh Valley C420. Since the LV and D&H lacked an actual physical connection that far west, these moves were run over the Erie, then Erie-Lackawanna, for part of the way. They came down the Lehigh Valley's Auburn Branch to Owego, hopped on the Erie, and then ran to Binghamton and went into the D&H's Bevier Street Yard.

A pair of "Snow Bird" C628s handling a LV-D&H interchange, on the Auburn Branch in Owego, NY waiting for clearance to enter the E-L and head for Binghamton on June 16, 1973. The Auburn Branch was described as "an adventure" by this late point, since the LV was in pretty bad shape. 

LV C420s #409 and #415 crossing the Chenango River in Binghamton to drop off cars for the D&H. The #409 and #415 would end up on the D&H roster when the D&H was given permission to raid the motive power pool from Conrail's creation, but the whole Sayre-Binghamton transfer would also become irrelevant, since the D&H got trackage rights all the way to Buffalo over the old E-L anyways.

Figured you'd dig this, Nick: a Metra MP36 in CNW green and yellow.

Ouch!  Unfortunately there was a semi driver under there.  

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/16/us/coal-train-derailment-driver-death-colorado

meanwhile... in Kentucky...

Appleseed said:

Figured you'd dig this, Nick: a Metra MP36 in CNW green and yellow.

It's pretty cool seeing all the heritage units running around. Maybe railroads should take note and realize that most of their current liveries suck and the old ones are way cooler.

I also learned recently how Metra operates and that seems like an absolute mess of an operation. BNSF handles the ex-CB&Q lines, UP handles the ex-Rock Island and ex-C&NW lines. They own and maintain the equipment, provide the head end crews, and all ticket agents outside of Chicago. At Aurora, BNSF keeps an Engineer and Trainman passenger board in addition to the regular freight pools, and there is also a passenger brakeman's and engineer's extraboard in addition to the regular freight extraboards. Metra also foots the bill for all fixed plant expenses, like how BNSF still has the old CB&Q cab signal system in operation between Chicago and Aurora only for the benefit of the suburban trains and so all expenses related to the upkeep of the cab signal systems are billed through to Metra. 

All the equipment on the UP lines is owned outright by Metra, but some of the older bilevel equipment on the BNSF were purchased by West Suburban Mass Transit District, not Metra, and leased directly to BN some years back. These cars, since they are technically under BNSF's direct control and not Metra's, carry the BNSF logonear the vestibules. Besides this easy spotting feature, these cars are also distinctive as they were built to the old Burlington specs with heavier center sills and beefier trucks with outboard brake cylinders.

The F40s and MP36 locos and the ADA cars are Metra property. BNSF and UP provide day-to-day maintenance, inspections and most repairs, but heavy loco work is done at Metra's own ex-RI shop at 47th Street.

In contrast to the BNSF and UP setups, Metra's own T&E personnel operate their own trains on their other lines. They operate over CN-owned, maintained and dispatched track on the majority of the North Central Service route. The Milwaukee District lines are owned, operated and maintained by Metra but dispatched by CP under CP rules/timetable. The SouthWest Service is operated and maintained by Metra over track both owned by Metra (ex-C&WI) and leased from NS under Metra rules/timetable. The Rock Island District and Metra Electric are owned, maintained, dispatched and operated entirely by Metra.

But, Union Pacific announced this year that the freight railroad would transfer its commuter rail operation to Metra in early 2024. As part of the transition, Metra will buy out Union Pacific's share and take over services including train crew, mechanical, car cleaning, rolling stock maintenance, ticket sales and some engineering services. There's some concern over that, since the words "fiscal cliff" and "Metra" seem to come up together frequently, and now they'll be spending more money trying to operate the UP portion.

In reply to 02Pilot :

I've seen people talking about that. I'd be that's not just the first time RGS #41 has been to Durango in 73 years, but the first time any of the narrow-gauge D&RGW Consolidations has been to Durango in that long. Once the K-27s and K-28s came along, they pretty much ruled that line.

This is the #41 at Ophir, on the Rio Grande Southern, with a Civilian Conservation Corp. Special. Those soaring wooden trestles were a big part of why the Rio Grande Southern failed. Extremely rugged territory, lots of tall wooden trestles that were pricey to maintain, flooding from the Dolores River, and traffic that heavily fell off after the Silver Panic of 1893.